Le vieux Vélo

The 411

Le vieux Vélo, has been on my list of spots for a while and there has been talk about it on various sites and forums. The reviews have always seemed positive. It is situated in the meeting point of little Italy and Rosemont/Petite Patrie (well technically it’s in Petite Patrie), which are two spots with a need for more quality brunch places. To date, everything I had heard had mentioned good eggs Benedict. As you may know, that is my favourite dish. I will often try other dishes and try to get as many different ones as possible but I keep coming back to eggs Benedict so when people tell me I need to check out the eggs Benedict at a new brunch locale, I get curious and hungry.

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Cabotins – A truly funky spot out east

The 411

A while ago I received and email from a reader asking me if I ever checked out Cabotins. Usually, I pride myself on having a pretty good list of most places that serve brunch in the city but this one wasn’t on it and what was more impressive was that it was in the East end where I live. I did not find much online but the person who wrote the email seemed really impressed by it, so naturally, I jumped at the next chance to go.

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Restaurant Madre – Latin fusion at it’s finest

The 411

Fusion cuisine and brunch are two things that, when combined, can elevate a dish to new levels or crash and burn. Most people are quite comfortable with their eggs and bacon and making fancy brunch dishes inspired by different cooking styles does not always get the warmest reception. I’ve written before about “nouveau” brunch and in fact, I was inspired to check out some of these places by a Sarah Musgrave article that covered a couple places in the city; Madre was one of them. Now, my greatest concern with nouveau brunch is that meals tend to deviate from classic breakfast items and end up being more of a lunch dish. Don’t get me wrong! I don’t mind breaking the mold and trying something different; I may have my old school roots but I do like being surprised and seeing someone take a novel approach to brunch. With that said, Madre proved an interesting challenge: a nouveau brunch style place that combines various South American cooking styles (Nuevo Latin). This is not an easy challenge by any means, although I have had Latin themed brunches before and the options on the menu are limited. If we consider that we are looking at fusing different styles from South America we could end up with something more lunch than brunch. In the end, I called up my oldest brunch buddy who happens to be a foodie and we went on our fancy brunch adventure.

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M sur Masson: A feast for your taste buds

The 411

The only thing I love more than discovering new places that I have never heard of before is finding one in my neighbourhood and that was M sur Masson. Situated in Rosemont, M sur Masson has been known as a really great place to have a good French Bistro meal. It is in a very interesting area in the east end where you will see big changes going on in the neighborhood – old neglected areas make way for newer younger restaurants stores and homes. The area is young, vibrant and changing before your eyes and I expect that even more places will open up and offer new and innovative food creations.

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